Six-man-team Playbox, which has until now specialised in outsourcing and work for hire duties, having handled the likes of Football Manager Pub Quiz and parts of Buzz: The Music Quiz, visited Japan as part of a trade mission put together for Liverpool businesses.

While there, the team visited TGS and met with a number of Japanese companies. The result has been being acknowledged as a development partner for the Nintendo Wii and a foot in the door at Capcom.

"Because Wii is such a new product, Nintendo is being fairly restrictive about the number of companies it's allowing to work on game development so getting approval is fantastic for us," managing director explained to icLiverpool.

Of the Capcom project he added: "After one meeting in Japan, Capcom travelled to Liverpool to see us and we're both keen to see what we can create together."